Running and Verification

Operate the self-hosted VM console as a privileged component of the KVM host. Container health alone is insufficient: verify the path from browser to API to libvirt to the guest.

Startup Check


docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml ps
docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml logs --tail=200 backend frontend
virsh -c qemu:///system list --all

Then confirm the UI loads and the backend mode response reports self-hosted mode. Review its feature map rather than assuming a hosted feature is present.

End-to-End Smoke Test

Use a disposable, licensed test ISO:

upload the ISO and verify its displayed size and name;
create a small VM with explicit CPU, memory, disk, and network choices;
start it and open the VNC console;
confirm boot progress is visible and keyboard input reaches the guest;
stop the VM;
delete it and confirm its domain, overlays, and temporary NVRAM are cleaned;
restart the backend and confirm no stale replacement launch is blocked.

Do not interpret a successful boot as hardware certification, application correctness, patch compliance, or proof that an installer completed.

Operational Signals

Monitor at least:

frontend and API reachability;
backend libvirt connectivity;
free host memory and disk space;
failed uploads and guest-launch errors;
guest domains, overlays, NVRAM, and network inventory;
the persistent cleanup journal under TEST_STORAGE_DIR;
container restart loops and backend exceptions.

The evaluation Compose file does not configure an external alerting system.

Common Failures

Symptom	Check
`/dev/kvm` permission denied	Host group membership and device mapping; do not make the device world-writable
Cannot connect to libvirt	Daemon status, socket path, `KVM_URI`, and container mount
Upload rejected	File type, free space, image-directory permissions, and the configured size limit
Guest cannot open source image	Host/container absolute-path identity and read permission
VNC disconnects	Guest state, libvirt graphics endpoint, proxy path, and browser console diagnostics
Replacement launch remains blocked	Persisted cleanup journal, stale domain/overlay/NVRAM resources, and backend logs

Shutdown

Stop or delete disposable guests in the UI before stopping the stack. Then run:


docker compose -f docker-compose.self-hosted.yml down

Inventory libvirt domains, images, networks, and the named volume afterward. Stopping containers does not automatically remove every host-owned resource.